Copilot Agents: Create the Perfect Agent for You

Microsoft has pushed Copilot Agents to the Business Chat areas of Copilot (e.g., Teams Chat and Office.com). This feature enables every Copilot license holder to create personalized agents, making Copilot even more adaptable to individual requirements. These agents can be shared within an organization, fostering collaboration and enhancing productivity. However, the settings are somewhat more restricted compared to the usual options available in the Share sheet. You can only share with specific users via Microsoft Azure AD/Entra ID groups or anyone within your organization. Let’s explore how these agents are created and some practical use cases.

How To Create Your Own Copilot Agents

Creating your own Copilot agents is a straightforward process, assuming you already have a Copilot license in Microsoft 365.  

Let’s explore a step-by-step guide:

1. Log into your Microsoft 365 account on office.com. 

2. Find the Copilot section in the left-hand navigation. *Note: Make sure you have “Work” selected as this is not available for “Web” * 

3. Click on “Create New Agent” and follow the prompts to customize your agent’s capabilities. This approach allows you to create your own agent without being a prompt engineer or knowing how to use the configuration screen. The agent will create itself based on the answers you provide. Add custom context to the agents by uploading files or pointing to a SharePoint site. 

4. Add custom context to the agents by uploading files or pointing to a SharePoint site.  

5. Once your agent is set up, deploy it and test its functionality to make sure it works as expected. This is an iterative process; the instructions might need to be tweaked a few times. This is known as “test and iterate”. 

6. Depending on the need, share the agent with others! 

Use Cases For Copilot Agents

These agents work much like custom Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) from ChatGPT. In a work setting with a personal Copilot, I envision these agents being particularly effective at handling or completing individual tasks, such as summarizing a meeting using the transcript and your own notes. The agent can go beyond Microsoft’s default format and summarize in a specific format. This customization is especially useful for meetings that have a specific flow, such as reviewing a business process. I’ve found the standard meeting summary from Copilot doesn’t work as well for these types of meetings. Another application could be to create an agent to help with status reporting. The agent can summarize status or progress reports from other team members – even getting context from team member chats to improve the results.

Why Are Copilot Agents So Powerful?

A big challenge for AI adopters is prompt engineering – a skill that needs to be learned and honed over time as AI tools change. Creating an agent by using AI itself gets better results, improves response consistency and provides an opportunity to tailor responses to meet your unique needs without the need for extensive, time-consuming prompt engineering.  

Copilot Agents provides an opportunity for everyone to create tailored agents. This feature empowers you to tailor your Copilot experience to be more accessible and to better meet your specific needs without requiring advanced technical skills. With just a few simple steps, you can create, customize and deploy agents that assist with various tasks, from summarizing meetings to generating detailed status reports. 

I recommend spending some time exploring how they can transform your workflow. Whether you’re looking to finish routine tasks faster or provide more nuanced, context-aware responses, these agents are designed to take the unique needs of the tasks into account.

By taking these steps, organizations can mitigate resistance and ensure a smoother transition to AI-driven processes.